At one point or another, Tuesday evening, during the 8th finals of the Champions League between Dortmund and PSG, Thomas Tuchel and Mats Hummels will inevitably see their path cross in the spans of Signal Iduna Park. A stadium where the two men worked together during the 2015-2016 season. But between them, the current never really passed, as humanly as sportingly. The German international defender has always criticized his coach for his lack of tact and empathy in his relations with his players.
Their conflict reached a climax on May 27, 2016. Just after the lost German Cup final against Bayern Munich on penalties, Tuchel had publicly and vehemently criticized his defender, insinuating that he had deliberately simulated cramps to be replaced during the match.
"Mats can do better in this kind of situation where executives are normally expected to respond," said the coach facing the cameras. A frontal attack which the one who then left for Bayern found it difficult to accept. “It is simply wrong to say that I wanted to go out. If I need to be replaced, I make distinctive signs, however, I did nothing and that was not my intention, "will correct Hummels later.
"Tuchel was disrespectful and came out of his hinges"
Two years later, in July 2018, when the name of Thomas Tuchel circulated in Bayern to replace Jupp Heynckes, the majority of the Bavarian locker room had opposed his arrival despite the insistence of Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chairman of the board of 'club administration. The leaders had taken the pulse with Hummels to know his opinion. "I told them what I thought of the coach," he said tersely. Despite an attempt at rapprochement initiated by Tuchel a few months later during an international match between Germany and England in Dortmund, they will never be on the same wavelength and their chances of reworking one day together are almost zero.
We must go back a good ten years back, precisely to the 2007-2008 season, when Tuchel was the coach of the Augsburg reserve team in the regional division, to understand the origin of this endless conflict. In the opposing ranks, at SpVgg Unterhaching, Tuchel then attacked defender Jonas several times… Hummels, Mats' younger brother. Insults had been fired from the bank of Augsburg uttered by Tuchel himself, with the aim of deconcentrating the one he considered the main danger for his training.
"Tuchel was very nervous," recalls an executive from Unterhaching. At the time, he was still a complete stranger, but his attitude was incredible. He was disrespectful and he regularly came out of his hinges. And to say that now he is the head of one of the biggest European clubs. I hope he has calmed down and that he does not shout at Neymar or Kylian Mbappé, otherwise, he is not likely to keep his job for very long. "